It was approved on Wednesday, but not without back and forth in commissioners' court over how to close a $200 million shortfall.
The Office of Management and Budget said key components in this budget include funding to support pay raises for law enforcement and county employees, expansions of the district attorney's office, and growth in the flood control district's maintenance program.
"We were able to make historic, much-needed investments in public safety," Commissioner Lesley Briones said on Wednesday.
"This is a really balanced budget that they were able to pass without a big hit to taxpayers," John Diamond, the Kelly Fellow at the Baker Institute, said. "The tax rate is staying right around the same, actually. It's going down just a hair. About .5 percent for every hundred dollars."
County leaders say that nearly all departments will need to cut their budgets by 10%, and these cuts include not filling vacant positions.
"The vast majority would be labor cuts," Diamond said. "The cost in projected labor expenditures but obviously there's going to be other cuts to other inputs as well. They haven't broken that out any where."
Reviewing the budget documents reveals that the county's hiring freeze across all departments would yield $25 million in savings.
"If you freeze those labor costs and don't allow them to grow from year to year, you're able to save a pretty good percentage of your budget. The county was facing a deficit going into the budget process, and they solved that by just counting on the same level of employment as they did the previous year," Diamond said.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has repeatedly expressed concern about the budget and the cuts she says to services.
The example the team at Adrian Garcia's office gave ABC13 is that the library system will see, for example, a cut in a program to help people get passports. But there is already a similar program offered by a different county department.
His office says that means the county saves taxpayer dollars by not doubling up on services.
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